Rubik's Cube Camera Mapping UV projection TEST + Blender + After Effects

Another (very) brief experiment using the UV projection modifier in Blender.
The resulting 3D animation is made based on a single still photograph that was projected onto some basic cube shapes, then a separate camera was used to render a short animation.
The cubes only have 3 sides each and are simple flat planessubdivided and rendered with a normal map.

The scene was re-lit in Blender in order to create realistic 3d shadows. This was the part that really amazed me while doing it in Blender 2.62: The GLSL preview allowed me to make changes to the lighting and see exactly what it would render like in realtime!
I haven't used Blender that much since it's complete UI overhaul and the last project I used it for was in Blender 2.49 using a crappy computer. It's taken me a little while to adjust to the new UI - and initially I was sceptical of the changes are meerly cosmetic and a case of bulking out the software a bit too much - but I am won over.
Blender truly is the best software progrma out there for 3D animation and modelling. It always was fairly intuitive in terms of it's workflow but occasionally you could very easily get lost in it's little buttons and menus. Versions 2.5+ have worked hard on fixing that.

Ok, lets get back to the little test footage above.
The cubes lighting up was added in After Effects using a keyframed 'Paint Fill' plugin. set to 'add'.
The 'music' (cough!) was thrown together and added also in After Effects.

Problems? Well, it's basically just a few cubes with textures projected onto them and there was no attempt made to make a more complex Rubik's Cube shape that would have added more realism. But camera projection mapping is all about saving time and getting a animated shot from a still photograph so, from that point of perspective, it does what's expected of it.

I'm looking forward to doing more experiments in camera mapping to see what effects I could use in my planned sci-fi feature.

Stuff used: Blender 3d, Adobe After Effects, Reaper, Nikon Coolpix camera for taking picture (obviously!)

2D to 3D Camera Mapping Blender 3D + Adobe After Effects TEST

Another version of the camera/projection-mapped shot of a gas station I did earlier this week.
This time I have more parallax in the shot to show depth. You need to take into account that this is just a single still photograph that has been converted into something that allows camera moves (although limited, I admit).
Rendered/modelled (using basic cubes and planes) in Blender, then composited in After Effects (dirt, grime, lens flare, colour correction, various blurring and extra camera shake to simulate a 'real' camera move).

There are still lots of problems with this shot in terms of getting away with it being inserted into a live action film and not sticking out like a sore thumb:

- The primitive shapes (boxes and planes) I used to construct the 3D scene could be added to in order to create more depth - particularly on the gas station shop which could do with extrusions around the windows and doors in order to add a more 3-dimensional feel.

- The reflection of the gas station on the ground is a bit sad looking. I didn't spend any time on it and the reflection in the previous example is far better (becasue I spent a bit more time on it).

- The Ice Box could be modelled in basic 3D instead of being part of the gas station shop facade.

- I should have rendered a separate depth pass which I would then composite to add true depth of field in After Effects. Instead I just masked out sections of the background in After Effects and faked a depth of field using the camera lens blur effect.

- More atmospheric haze and debris would add depth to the shot and help reduce the feeling the gas station is just a model rather than a real, full-sized construction.

- I drastically reduced the speed of the shot in After Effects to add more 'weight'. I also added little bumpy wobbles to the camera move to simulate a real-world camera person. But I can't help feeling the the shot could do with being slowed down even more.

But this is just an experiement and now I know that camera mapping works and is relatively simple to achieve one the initial set-up is done. Going into The Gimp (or Photoshop) and breaking a still photograph into individual layers based on how they occlude what is behind them, then using the clone tool to fill in the gaps left behind when theose foreground/middleground, etc elements are removed is time consuming (and boring).
Also, setting up the 3D camera in Blender (or any 3D package) and trying to match the angles is a pain in the *%$!

But once that hard stuff is down you star seeing how cool an efect UV camera projection is!

Blender UV Projection Modifier+Adobe After Effects+Camera Mapping TEST

A very quick and basic test of camera mapping using Blender 3D and After Effects.

I used a still photograph and used the UV projection modifier in Blender to 'map' the image onto some very basic geometry. The camera move is very slight - and the 'shot' lasts just 2 seconds! -but you can see that it works.

I then took the render in After Effects and added film grain, colour correction, and motion tracked smoke elements and lens flare. I also added a reflection on the ground in After Effects to simulate wet ground around the gas station.

"To Shoot A Rurf" - November Critic's Choice on MISHORTS

Sorry we haven't been updating in a (loooong) while, but we've been busy with other projects that have really eaten away with our time.

Anyway, here's some news;

"To Shoot A Rurf" is one of four films chosen this month on the Mishorts.com website as part of the Critics Choice.

The film was made back in 2007 and was created using Blender 3D and other Open Source software programs.
Directed by Shane Sheils and Paula Sheils, it is one of the oddest movies you are ever likely to see!



From the MiShorts site:

Guest Critic: Michelle Thomas

Michelle Thomas (aka Coco Forsythe) sits on the advisory committee of the British Independent Film Awards and has been a FutureMovies editor and reviewer for the past five years. Her ‘proper’ job is in film marketing and although preferring indie/arthouse fare, she confesses to enjoying a bit of mindless entertainment now and then.

To Shoot A Rurf

An impressive noirish animation depicting the effects of long term drinking. If that sounds like some sort of Government Health Warning, its not; with black humour, original style and fantastic sound design, its miles from Drugs Are Bad, Mkay style messages. Set mainly in a gloomy backroom bar and the protagonist’s dingy flat, this is an extremely accomplished film, deftly creating a sinister atmosphere with its clever use of lighting and colour. A film for anyone who has ever regretted that last drink.

Festival More news on "A Polish winter"

More news on "A Polish Winter" screenings at upcoming festivals:

It is showing at The Greater Phoenix jewish Film Festival, In Arizona, USA.



It is also showing in competition at the Derby City Film Festival, USA

You can download and watch "A Polish Winter" at this link
The file is in XVid Mpeg4 format and it's size is approximately 165MB.


"A Polish Winter " is a moving tribute to the Holocaust through the eyes of a child.

"A Polish Winter" Nominated for Blender Suzanne Award

Our Holocaust-themed short film "A Polish Winter" is nominated in the category of Best Film at this years Blender Suzanne Awards.

The Suzanne awards are the Blender Foundation's version of the Oscars, so we are very happy to be nominated.


Blender 3D is the software we used to create A Polish Winter.

Sci-Fi Short - Location Design images

Here are some images of the location that the Sci-Fi 3D animated short is set in.

You can see that it's a grimy, dark spaceport room with a bizarre television set as the focal point!

All models were created using Blender 3D and all textures were made using The Gimp.

Click on the images to view full-sized.

More images to follow soon....

Link - Ohio Blender User

Here is a link to a filmmaker and special FX guy from Cleveland, Ohio who's been using Blender.

http://clevelandfx.blogspot.com/

I'm always interested in hearing from other Blender 3D users around the World and finding out what techniques and work they're doing with Blender.

So, if you have some tricks up your sleeve or are doing some interesting stuff with Bleneder feel fre to get in touch and i'll try and put up a link to your website/blog.


Shane
Dwarfed Films

Adding Camera Movement to Video Footage in Blender 3D

Adding Camera Movement to Video Footage in Blender 3D

For our latest short film I wanted to add very subtle camera movements to simulate a kind of hand-held feel to the action.
There are three ways I could go about this:

The first would be to animate the camera jittering about while doing the animation.
This would lead to longer rendering times of the backgrounds especially in scenes requiring lots of ray tracing and mirrored reflections.

The second way would be to render the scenes with a static camera and then import these sequences into Blender Sequence editor and apply the ‘Jitter’ plugin.
This would render faster but the jitter not very convincing.

The final way would be to render the scenes with a static camera and then import them back into Blender, project the images onto a 3D card which we can then add (limited) camera movement on the X and Y axis, as well as zoom.

SO this is the technique that I’m gonna use.

Ok, what’s the purpose/benefits of doing this?

Well, firstly, this method involves putting an image onto a plane (or any shape – but mostly a flat plane) and then using a 3D camera to perform simple pans, rotations and zooms on this image.
By doing this you can achieve some simple camera effects like handheld jitter.
Its not 100% accurate but it will suit some scenario’s and it is a great little way to do some useful cropping and post-processing on pre-recorded/animated footage.







It’s really easy to set up a 3D viewing plane:

All you need is a Camera and a Mesh Plane.
When inserting the Camera and the Plane, press ALT+R and then ALT+G to clear their rotation and location co-ordinates.

Then drag the Camera back on the Z-axis far enough so that you can see the Plane in the Camera View. Press CTRL+A to clear rotation/location/scale.

Now press the ‘0’ key on your keyboard to enter 3D view from the camera’s perspective.

Now, I’m working in this instance with footage that has dimensions of 720 X 300 pixels.
(For the actual film I will be using dimensions of 900 X 432 pixels but lets just use 720 X 300 for this example)

In the Render Buttons panel enter 720 X 300.

Now scale your mesh plane in Edit Mode so that it fits perfectly inside the camera view.

Fig 1: The image before being scaled to fit the camera view.


Fig 2: The image scaled to fit inside the Camera view accurately.


Enter UV edit mode and select all the vertices and Unwrap using “Project form View Bounds”. (It helps if you select a single still image from your image sequence and import it separately into the UV window so that it allows you to visually line up your plane to the correct scale)

Go to the Material buttons tab and add a new material to the plane.
Go to the Texture buttons and add a new texture to the plane – select an image sequence or movie. Enter the amount of frames you want to use in the box to shows up.


Go back to Material buttons and select Shadeless (and TEX FACE if you want).
In ‘MAP INPUT’ choose ‘UV’.

See the enclosed image for settings (you may note that I was using an image sequence with an Alpha channel).


Go to the render buttons panel and enter the output frame size you wanna use.
In this instance it’s 720 X 576 (PAL).
You will notice that the top and bottom of the 3D viewport fame has increased.
This is because the frame size I choose before (720 X 300) was intended to give a ‘letterboxed’ image.

Make sure Ambient Occlusion is turned off when rendering or else you will end up with the sky showing through in the background and increased render times.

Now that you are all set up, you can move the Camera about in 3D space and animate it using IPO’s.
You can zoom in on selected areas, or do pans and rotations.
Remember that when doing pans and rotations you need to be zoomed in slightly (or a lot!) or else you will end up with a strange looking cropped image.
This is why I rendered my initial sequences of the film as larger than my intended output size – 900 X 432 instead of 720 X 576.
This means that I can zoom in for camera movements without the image getting blocky or pixellated.
Add ‘jitter’ camera movements that zoom in and out and pan from side to side and up/down using IPO curves.
Be careful not to over do it or to add too much movement as it will become disorientating – and look a bit crap! Subtle moves will help add to the general feel of your movie.


Experiment with this technique and see what else you can come up with!


Shane Dwarfed Films

New Image from lender 3D animated Sci-Fi short

Here's another image showing the television from our latest short film.

Keep watching this site for further updates, images and news!

Blender Sci-Fi Short - Vicious Bug Character

Here is the re-designed bug character from our latest short 3D animated film.

Click on the image to view larger.

The previous model I created for the film just didn't feel right so I did a complete overhaul and redesigned this one yesterday then completed the texturing and rigging late last night.

It's a nasty-looking winged bug that I feel fits perfectly with the style of the film much more than what we originally had.

The lead character - which you can see in a previous post - is a slob-like, chain smoking, fat, lazy, bum!
The razor-fanged leech-shaped fly fits the whole stylistic design we want the film to have.



I mentioned in an earlier post about the lighting and how important it is to the look and feel of this short.
The atmosphere really depends on having the correct lighting setups for the particular scene tone.
Get it wrong and you run the risk of messing up movie, so I'm spending a lot of time working out the correct lighting setups and how they will work with shot angles and how they basically make the character models look.
Bad lighting can destroy a good model!

Keep tuned for more updates on this film which is being made using Blender 3D and other open source/freeware software.

New Sci-Fi Short Being Made with Blender 3D -UPDATE

Well, here's a cropped test image from some of the experiments being tested out during the making of out as yet unnamed Sci-Fi 3D animated short film.

We are very pleased with the script and the production is moving along nicely.
Certain elements such as atmospheric effects and lighting and texturing are what are taking up most of our time working through.

We are using 3K textures for the characters that have been exported from UV maps in Blender to The Gimp where they have been meticulously altered and improved, then re-imported back into Blender and altered some more!
Then the process begins again until we get the look we're after.

The room in which the story takes place is not yet finalized and a few other elements in terms of 3D design.
The lead characters were designed and rigged pretty easily -it's the texturing and lighting part that requires lots of focus and attention.

So far we're not going to divulge any plot details apart from saying that the film is certainly gonna be one of the strangest and most bonkers things we've ever made!

Keep watching for more updates and making of details.

New Sci Fi Short Film being produced by Dwarfed Films

Hi there,

It's been a little while since we last posted here so lets get up to date with whats going on!

We've a new Sci-Fi short in the works.

Here's a composite still with 3 images pasted together showing the lead character - an alien creature who chain smokes!



We're not gonna reveal any plot details at the moment but are simply gonna share the following:

• The film is another 3D computer animation
• It's being produced using Blender 3D
• Both of us are directing -as per usual
• We've been working on a fantastic soundtrack and sonics
• It's a Science fiction film!! - we've waited a long time before getting around to making one

More pics, plot details and making-of's soon.

Keep visiting for more info.

A Polish Winter -Completed

A Polish Winter has been completed.

The film is set in Eastern Europe just after the end of World War II and is a moving tribute to the children murdered in Nazi death camps during the Holocaust.

The 3d animated short film was written and directed by Shane Sheils and Paula Sheils.
The soundtrack was also composed by Shane and Paula.


The entire movie was created using Blender 3D, the Gimp and some other open source or freeware software programs.

We will try and upload the A Polish Winter Press Pack soon.

A Polish Winter -Colour grading in Blender 3D

Click on image to view larger.

Just a simple demonstration of the importance of colour grading images used in film production.
The image on the left is with grading while the image on the right is the unaltered original image.

A Polish Winter - image

Another still from "A Polish Winter".

The film is our latest short film and is set in Poland in the post 2nd World Wat period.
The still features the lead character - a young boy - but there is no background rendered, as yet.
Surprisingly, the films animation is rendering pretty fast and colour grading of the animated frames is very smooth also!


Click on the image to view larger.

A Polish Winter - new image

A new image from "A Polish Winter"

Click to enlarge

New film Update

Here's an image from the latest short 3D animated film were working in.

The film is called "A Polish Winter" and is set in Eastern Europe in the 1940's.
The young boy you see in the image is the only character in the movie .

As I've said in a previous posting, this film is a major departure from "Mr. Humpfninkel's Sales Technique" in terms of storyline and tone.
A Polish Winter is a moving tribute to the child victims of the Holocaust and indeed all children who were murdered in Nazi extermination camps during World War 2.

On a more technical note, A Polish Winter uses a different style from our previous films. The characters eyes are like little, black stones: for some reason we were just drawn to this kind of look for the boy. It makes him seem more innocent, possibly.
The lighting is still being thought out , but it will be more dreamy and ethereal - by that, I mean that the film will focus less on crisp details and more on an overall sense of mood and spirit to reflect the tone and substance of the tale.

Snow will play a major part of the film's design but we don't want to get too bogged down in a 100% realistic depiction of snow, but more an overall sense of feeling again.

We've done an awful lot of reading about the Nazi extermination camps (particularly the Action Reinhardt camps in Poland) in the build up to A Polish Winter. But this film does not aim to depict the actual camps themselves but to reflect more on the human loss of life that took place in those evil places.

More updates and images soon.

You can contact Dwarfed Films here with any questions or simply leave a comment on the site.


Shane

Mr. Humpfninkel's Sales Technique - Complete!

Yes the film is completed!

A lot of hard work and dedication to get to this stage. We'd like to say a big thank you to our voice actor on the short, Sherman Alpert from New York.

We'll try and upload a lo-res version of the movie if possible too.

Sony Acid Pro and Vegas are crap!

I don't know how many times Acid Pro and Vegas have let us down. Sony are great making hardware but when it comes to software they are pretty weak.
Very unreliable and unstable.
Crashes in the middle of doing very simple audio edits.

And what makes it worse is the fact that it sometimes (more than just 'sometimes' actually!) creates bad backups that will not load!!!!!

Unfortunately there is just so much of "Mr. Humpfninkel's Sales Technique" already pieced together in Sony Vegas that we can't start again in another editor.
Our initial aim was to do all the animation and video editing in Blender 3D and the cleanup and sync in Reaper - a shareware product. But Reaper is weak on it's visual capabilities. It simply cannot cope with video playback properly - which is a terrible pity because Reaper is probably the very best audio editor I've ever used. Fast, reliable and well designed.

I really wish Sony could've spent more time creating a competent editor rather than focusing on overloading their software with unnecessary frills and gimmicks.
They should take a long, hard look at Open Source software to appreciate the value of reliability and stability over cosmetics.


Shane